Game Review: The Godfather

Read more about The Godfatherat IGN.comIt's no secret that Francis Ford Coppola, director of The Godfather Trilogy (1992), is not a fan of The Godfather video game. After finishing it, it's not hard to understand why he might be less than thrilled with this adaptation. It's not that it's a bad game — it's actually fairly entertaining — but it's in no way a reflection of the movie other than the fact that it borrows many of the main characters and the classic setting of 1940s New York as its backdrop. Where the original movie was full of political intrigue, wicked subplots and occasional gratuitous violence, the game is all about the violence, and it's so over the top that it makes Joe Pesci's character from Goodfellas (1990)blush.

the scene

You play a low-ranking member of the Corleone family, seeking revenge for the murder of your father, who was killed by the Barzini gang when you were a wee lad. All grown up, the events of the movie begin as you start your career as a mobster, working your way up the mob’s food chain. Your character takes part in many of the famous scenes from the movie: You see Luca get garroted by The Turk, you're charged with protecting the Don in the hospital and you even get to shoot the rat Paulie on the orders of fat Clemenza. The horse head? Yeah, that was you, too.

In addition to following the main storyline, you're free to earn extra loot by extorting from local shop owners and taking over behind-the-scenes rackets, such as gambling halls and brothels. The extortion tends to get a tad repetitive, though. You simply walk into a shop and rough up the owner or start breaking stuff until he (or she) relents and decides to pay you weekly protection money. You can take this too far, though: If you push the person over the edge, they'll defend themselves with everything they have, so learning the art of "persuasion" is one of the more important parts of the side missions.

The boring extortion is matched by the boring contract-killing side missions. My advice is to sit back after earning some weekly income, stick to the story and try to take over the occasional crime-family warehouse in order to reduce their power.

Find out the pros and cons of The Godfather and avoid a bloody massacre...